Life After ‘Dead’: Hear ‘Walking Dead’ Actress Emily Kinney’s New Song
Kinney has lined up roles on the upcoming season of The Knick and the current season of Masters of Sex. Regarding her role on the former, a bloody show set in a hospital around the year 1900, she says she’s playing a nurse, but beyond that the show’s creator, Steven Soderbergh, has sworn her to secrecy regarding the role. “I only had a couple of scenes where there was a lot of blood, but it didn’t bother me,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s coming from Walking Dead to there, but everything seemed fairly clean. On The Walking Dead, I was covered in dirt and bloody and sticky, so this was pretty organized.”
She’ll be making her Masters of Sex debut later this month in the role of Nora, who as a child was Bill Masters’ neighbor and is now participating as a “sex surrogate” in Masters and Johnson’s study. Kinney makes no qualms about explaining what that means: “At this point in Season Three, they’ve started helping men with their different issues, like, trying to figure out, ‘How do we help someone who can’t get it up or can’t ejaculate.’ So my character has volunteered to be in the program, along with some other women, to help Dr. Masters. They go through training to help men with these issues and through that, a lot of drama happens.”
Kinney laughs when Rolling Stone asks how awkward it can be on set, playing that kind of a character. The kind of a role is “freeing,” she says. “I kind of like stuff that’s sexy and especially when it’s so well written,” she says. “The show is about sex, but they already have such a good system of dealing with all of the very sexy scenes and talking about it on set. It’s very fun and not that awkward.”
The thing that’s awkward, she says, is talking about her role with her parents and family who are ambivalently curious about the show. “It’s your mom and dad,” she says seriously. “They just don’t understand. My family was a little more, I guess, strict, about that stuff growing up. It’s awkward when your family and your aunts and uncles are like, ‘We wanna see that,’ and then I think maybe they don’t.”
But despite family awkwardness, she’s happily moving forward with both her acting and musical pursuits on her terms. Along with her acting schedule, Kinney has booked a few concerts to support her music.
In addition to an appearance at the Walking Dead–themed Walker Stalker Con later this month and a September record release gig in Los Angeles next month, Kinney has set up a special performance — related tangentially to “Birthday Cake” — on her 30th birthday, August 15th, at the Indiana State Fair. “I always think it’s a good time if you’re working on your birthday,” she says. “At least for actors and singers, I feel like it sets up the whole year. Just do what you like to do.”